


The City of Madness

by Cryellow



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fighting, Heavy Angst, catradora sad shit, made a little city of my own
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 03:48:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19881112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cryellow/pseuds/Cryellow
Summary: Adora discovers a small golden plaque in the middle of the forest with the label "Venera." She deduces that it is First Ones tech and also that it is a small plaque standing alone in the middle of a giant patch of strange flowers, none of which makes any sense, except that it makes all the sense in the world.Surprises and hurt follow She-Ra inside the cave. How will she survive so much pain?





	The City of Madness

**Author's Note:**

> OHHH YEAHHHHH. Saw the She-Ra Season 3 trailer and lost my GODDAMN MIND. I totally forgot that I had some of this fic written and then I decided to finish it before season 3 comes out and its unrelevant u kno. Anyway points if you can find the exact moment where I started writing and then had to go back and write the beginning. Anyway I LOVE SHERA AND ALSO ANGST SO HERE YOU GO! 6k OF A FIC I DIDNT EXPECT!

Beginnings and Endings are always the hardest parts of anything. Stories, Histories, and even Lives. Some people are born into royalty: depending on your familial status and your personality, you’re in the perfect place to have an easy life. Some are born and discarded, and this aftermath, while decrepit, may lead down the path of a tattered existence. Other times Life and Time may become fated lovers, and your upbringing does not define the moments between your breaths. 

So where, it may be asked, does this story, this history, this life begin? From where can we pull the depth of knowledge and thrive on it? Where do we begin to tell tales of woe and tales of admiration, that they might give insight? 

We begin this one, particularly, with Adora. She has no last name, as per given by the Horde which had raised her. She was born and taken, but was trained. Her story dictates her departure from the Horde’s place, instead seeking asylum with the Princesses of Power, of whom life has often only known wealth and prosperity until Hordak and his men descended.

Stories often have branches, like tightly wound trees with growing roots and a thick trunk, the small ends sprouting dozens of different ways. Adora was raised with another: a cat girl named Catra. She, too, had no last name. She never left the Horde’s regime, but instead dwelled in it: in the misery and pain with the knowledge and truth she does not run from. 

Weeks and months had separated Catra and Adora from the moment that Adora had left, but they kept seeing each other: recurrences which often ill-suited Adora, who’s new powers seemed impossibly weak to the knowledge Catra held about all of Adora’s misgivings. Battles raged as the Horde continued to conquer Etheria, only failing when the princesses came together, and succeeding when Catra was at the helm. 

But she, too, had her weakness, and only those within the Horde knew the truth.

There was a battle dangerous enough to free all of these secrets and more. A Battle whom nobody won and nobody lost. 

Adora was scouting the Horde’s progress one evening, dusting the clouds in search of some whereabouts. Up until that point, the Horde had gone quiet from the tiresome battles. Something peculiar happened to Adora’s sword and it lit up vibrantly, catching her attention. It only lit up in a certain place, and suddenly Adora had found something on the ground. Something with the name “Venera.”

It was a name that Adora had read before while searching through books within Bow’s family library. There was not much about it save for a few mentions of a city of some sort. Little did Adora know that by investigating this glorious place, she would be guiding the Horde to a location filled with technology that they could exploit. 

Adora, at the time, had only sought to tell Bow and Glimmer about this discovery, one afternoon on a day with no real leads to the Horde’s whereabouts. 

“Guys, can I see you in our room?” Adora asked, when she looked around at Glimmer talking to a soldier and Bow polishing his arrows on the large gathering table. Without a word both left immediately behind her, and she closed the door once they were both inside. 

“What is it, Adora? Did you locate the Horde?” Glimmer looked beyond excited at the prospect of kicking Horde butt. She would never forgive them for almost destroying her home and the people inside it. She was also growing rather tired without any action.

Bow looked attentive but didn’t say anything while Adora’s eyes lit up. “There’s no Horde movement from what I saw- but that’s not why I brought you in here. I want you to come with me. You need to see something.” 

“Okay…?” Bow said lightly. “This isn’t some crazy stunt like you jumping off a cliff is it? Because that wasn’t funny the last time-” 

“Cliff diving is very fun if you have the right distance to water ratio,” Adora scolded. She shook her head to cut herself off before she burst into a speech about the exhilaration of a good cliff-dive. “Just… come with me.” 

In five minutes they were hopping onto Swift Wind and on their way. They passed empty fields and strips of forest without stopping until Adora came onto a long strip of meadow surrounded by flowers that seemed to sparkle in the sunlight. 

“Woah,” Glimmer said behind Adora, looking down with surprise. In a few moments they had landed on the soft grass and were examining the peculiar flowers with interest. “I haven’t seen flowers like these in a long time. I think Dad gave a bouquet of these to Mom once.” 

“They’re crystal flowers,” Bow said, one in his hand. It had a long stem with several petals that formed close together, with small antenna that led off of it that look like they held diamonds at the ends. He plucked it from the dirt and the most peculiar thing happened. The flower lost all it’s shine and drooped in his hand. 

“How did your dad give them as a gift?” Bow said, curiously. Glimmer shook her head, confused. Adora, though, was not listening or paying attention. Once she had hopped off Swift Wind, she was walking around amongst the flowers, looking for something. She had her sword out in front of her, using the tip like a sort of beacon. 

“Adora, what are you-” Glimmer said, but she watched as the other girl walked over a certain patch of flowers and her sword tip lit up brightly. 

“Here!” Adora said, excitedly. She got on her hands and knees in the grass and spread the long strands of green aside like splitting hairs on a head. A soft “oh!” escaped Glimmer as she saw a small plaque on the ground. There were symbols on the plaque that only Adora knew, the language of the First Ones, and she read them aloud as Bow came behind Glimmer to stare at the thing as well. 

“The city of Venera yields only to She-Ra in death. May others be told of the peaceful city whose inhabitants were forced to leave.”

“But…. there’s nothing here.” Glimmer said, nervously. “You don’t think that you have to  _ die _ to see it, do you, because I say that the city can remain lost, Adora, it’s not worth it-” 

“No,” Adora said, standing. “It means that the city is dead, and I’m the only one who can open its entrance. In Common the words sound different than in First Ones.” 

Lifting her sword, she said, softly, “For the Honor of Grayskull.” 

Her body shifted in front of Glimmer and Bow, and in a few seconds (separated only by a bright light coming off of her) she was She-Ra, and standing in front of the plaque. 

“Venera,” She-Ra said loudly. This, however yielded nothing. Glimmer and Bow exchanged a nervous look. She-Ra was unperturbed by this and started saying other words, in hopes her voice might trigger something beneath the plaque. “I am She-Ra. Peace. Welcome Wagon.” 

Her words were becoming more odd by the minute and eventually she threw her sword in the grass right in front of the plaque so hard it buried almost to the hilt. “Come on! There’s got to be something here!” 

“Maybe this is all that’s left,” Glimmer said softly, picking flowers and putting them in her palm. They looked odd dead in her hand. She started to teleport around the field, perhaps looking for clues about the city, but when she didn’t see anything, she went back to stand by the other two. 

“Hey!” Bow said, running up to Glimmer excitedly. 

“What?” She said nervously, patting herself. “Did I get something on me?” 

“No. Your hand.” Bow pointed to the flower Glimmer still had in her hand, and so did She-Ra, and with a jolt they realized the flower was alive again. Glimmer’s power must have worked on it. 

“Well that’s nice,” She-Ra said, rolling her eyes. “You can revive the flowers. I don’t think that’s part of the city.” 

“That’s still pretty cool,” Bow said, enraptured by the science behind the not-so-dead flower. “I think it has something to do with your moonstone and the power from it.”

“Let’s just go,” Adora said, shaking her head. She put her hands on her sword and started to lift. “What’s the point of this stupid plaque if it won’t even show me Venera at all?” 

But that seemed to have worked, like it was supposed to have been done the whole time. Suddenly the ground under Adora’s sword was opening like a hatch lid, and when she lifted her sword above her head, there was a large square opening in the ground lit up by crystals. 

“AHA!” She-Ra exclaimed. She had started to take a step forward but hesitated. “You guys should go first. I don’t know if it’s going to close after me.” 

Glimmer nodded, grabbed hold of Bow, and teleported them in the lip of the tunnel. They walked a few more steps and waited for She-Ra to join them. She turned to Swift Wind and smiled. “You should stay here. You know how you get with enclosed spaces.” 

“Noted,” Swift Wind said dramatically. “I’m going to be flying around looking for apples. If I see it open again I’ll be here.”

She-Ra smiled and with one swift motion she lowered her sword and stepped in. The opening, however, did not shut immediately, deciding instead to remain open. 

“Hm,” Swift Wind said after a beat. 

“Can you guard it? I’ll know if you need me.” 

“And I, you, oh Princess of Power,” The magical horse said, saluting her with his wing. “Have fun in there.”

“Will do,” she replied, smirking. She walked into the tunnel and didn’t look back, trusting the horse with her life. 

After a few minutes of walking the tunnel got incredibly dark. Glimmer went to use her powers as a light sphere, but noticed that the flower in her hand gave off incredibly more light than that. The three of them kept walking in the tunnel, and eventually there were more symbols of First One’s writing on the walls. 

She-Ra read them aloud, turning her head this way and that. “Please don’t run. Mind your head when leaving.” 

“Are they all warnings?” Glimmer asked dubiously. 

“No,” She-Ra replied, looking at a strip of symbols farther down. “This one says ‘No carts under 9 Xen.” 

“So this was like a transport passage?” Bow quessed. 

“I think so,” She-Ra replied. 

They kept walking more and more until they reached the lip of the tunnel. They didn’t need Glimmer’s flower to see anymore, though. When they stepped up to where the tunnel opened, all three of them blinked their eyes against a haze of light. After a few minutes their eyes adjusted, and they gasped as they looked around. 

The whole thing was an incredibly large circle. It was a collection of ancient castles and buildings hidden beneath Etheria’s crust. An abandoned city hidden from view but dazzling in appearance. Crystals were everywhere: in the walls of this humongous cave, in the rock houses that were built far below them, in small lamp-post like things scattered around the city. There was a long path that curved downward on the wall that was wide enough for large carts to pass on easily and it wound a long path down to the floor of the rock and through the city to the castle at the far end. 

“Oh my,” Glimmer whispered in awe.

“Holy-” Adora started dropping from She-Ra with a film of magic, but Bow cut her off. 

“How long has this been here?!” 

Adora looked over to the lip of the tunnel once more and saw a long plaque on the wall. She read aloud again for their sake. 

“Venera’s opening to the ‘Above World’. No child may exit unless supervised. Cart carriers must have transport papers to and from. Guards, please note all entering and leaving for safety and missing person reports.” 

“There were children here,” Glimmer said, numbly. 

“Come on,” Bow said, walking forward to go down the smooth rock path. “I wonder what else is here.” 

The city was beautiful. Even though most of the buildings were made with rock, it was more of a limestone and quartz than a regular bedrock. They had chiseled streets and maps everywhere, and occasionally Adora saw little patches of grass that must have been taken from the “Above World”. There was a large town square that lead up towards the castle that had a beautiful pattern on it. The three of them stood on the square and looked around at all the shops and huts that framed the square. 

“This looks like an excellent place for a festival,” Glimmer said softly, holding her arms tightly at her side. “What happened?” 

“I don’t… know,” Adora replied, walking forward towards the path that led to the castle. “Maybe we can find something there.” 

“HELLO?!” Bow called out to the city, arms around his mouth. The two girls jumped and looked at him angrily. There was no response except his own ‘hello’ echoing around the cave. 

“What the heck, Bow?” Glimmer frowned at him. 

“What? I thought it was a good idea. Maybe someone’s still down here.” 

“I seriously doubt that,” Adora said morbidly, shaking her head. “Come on.” 

She gestured with her hand for the other two to follow and they walked down the path towards the castle. They didn’t talk as they walked, which was the worst part, because the only sounds were the still recurring ‘hello’ from Bow’s earlier shout and their own footsteps harsh on the ground. When they finally reached towards the castle, it was raised slightly above the rest of the town, and the pathway merged up to meet it. The castle had a sort of lake around it, not quite a moat, filled with icy blue crystalline water that glistened just as brightly as the flower Glimmer had taken. They didn’t stop to do anything or even take a drink, as much as Bow looked like he longed to touch it, instead walking forward to the castle’s door. 

The problem was, there wasn’t one. The three of them walked right into the entryway without a sign that the rock had ever had a semblance of a blockage in front of the cut. 

“That’s… odd.” Glimmer said, unnerved. 

“It’s just a door,” Adora commented lightly, shrugging. “Or, well, not a door, really-” 

“Uh-” Bow interjected, looking around with his mouth open. “Are you guys seeing this?” 

Indeed, they were. On the inside of the castle, the crystals that made up the outer layer of the cave and the lights that surrounded the rest of the city were extremely prominent inside the castle walls. There was broken down furniture, mostly wood, scattered all over the ground as if it had been thrown, but there were other rock carvings that seemed to have been preserved, like the throne that sat in the room to the left of the empty entryway. There was a staircase filled with crystals that went impossibly higher and the three of them had to crane their necks to see how far it went. 

“Maybe there’s something around here that can tell us what happened,” Adora commented, looking interestingly at the throne room. 

“Let’s split up. If we find something we’ll meet back in here.” Glimmer replied, heading towards the stairs. Bow nodded and went right towards a magnificent dining area. 

Adora went into the throne room and examined the walls. They told a magnificent history of the Veneran people, about their wars and unjust rulers who were overthrown and replaced. Some had pictures while others had vivid descriptions, but it was a little difficult to read because of the accent the Veneran’s had that was different to the other First Ones writing Adora was used to finding in ancient temples. IT was like a dialect to a language you already spoke. 

When she finally walked through the room to the solitary throne, she noticed the intricate markings that were on the armrests and the way the crystals were embedded into the back. Whoever sat there left a long time ago, but there was no dust to be spoken of, no detail of the throne that said neglect. 

“Hey guys!” Glimmer said, teleporting back to the entryway. Adora and Bow followed back into the room and looked at her expectantly. “You have to come see this.” 

When the three of them teleported into a brightly lit room covered in crystals, they were also shocked to find it covered in books. This must have been the library of sorts. 

“Oh man,” Bow said, walking immediately up to the books. “My dads would kill for these, and I say that literally.” 

“Some of these… are weird,” Adora said, picking up a few tomes carefully and trying not to break the fraying paper. “Like this one is in First Ones, which is fine, but it has it all mixed. Like it was written by someone who didn’t know it well. And this one-” she picked up another- “isn’t First Ones at all. It’s… another language entirely.” 

“Maybe they had their own language,” Bow suggested, picking up another book. “This one has pictures. I think it’s a kids book. Why would they have that in the library in the castle?” 

“Because it wasn’t a castle like you would think,” Glimmer said solemnly behind them, and they realized they hadn’t seen where she went. She was standing by a large desk that was situated right by a giant gaping hole on the wall acting as a window, her hands pressed firmly on the wood. 

“What do you mean?” Adora said, putting the book back and walking towards Glimmer. 

“Think of it- the large dining room, the entryway, it all makes sense. This wasn’t just a home for their royalty- was like a museum of sorts. It was a place for them to come and go. They were welcome into the castle. But look here-” She held up a few pages that looked like they had scrambled writing on it, but this Adora could read like the writing on the walls downstairs. She read aloud. 

“To She-Ra, who’s sword alone will penetrate the gate when we are gone.” Adora cut herself off and swallowed hard, looking at the paper. For a second she didn’t say anything and Bow and Glimmer looked at her worried. Begrudgingly, she kept speaking. 

“You do not know the pain you are causing. You do now know the terror you are inflicting on our people, but I will help you understand. I only have a few minutes before you enter the city once more, in which I will try to hide my people in order to avoid your wrath. 

You are mad. Something has happened. You are not the She-Ra you once were. Instead of our peaceful town you only see murderers, and this pains me and my people greatly because of the bloodshed you have caused. We are escaping to the Above Ground- something we have not done in many millennia- and will hope to find a home there if you have not had your wrath subdued by then. I fear that your oncoming storm may be our total obliteration-” 

Adora was confused and hurt, reading the page, but thats where it cut off. 

“Is there another?” She asked, desperately, searching for the rest of the letter, the rest of the city that Moira undoubtedly destroyed. 

Bow and Glimmer searched but did not find another, and both raised their heads shaking. Adora stepped back, unsteady, and almost knocked into a stone bench hewn from the ground. Glimmer teleported over to her and held her up for a second, gently lowering her onto the seat. 

“Adora it’s not your fault-” she started, but it was too late. Adora was getting into hysterics. She did that a lot these days, especially more as the Horde and Catra got closer and closer to them. 

“She-Ra did this- it’s like  _ I _ did this. She destroyed this whole city and all its people-” 

“You don’t know that,” Bow said, shaking his head. “They could have survived, Adora, they could have melded with the population up top.” 

“Yeah,” Glimmer said reasonably, “Greja is only a few yards from here, and their town has been there a long time. Maybe we can ask them about it-” 

“No!” Adora said, shaking her head roughly and grabbing it with her hands. “I can’t find out what I did to those people- I have to do better- I have to save everyone-” 

“Adora,” Glimmer said, gently. But Glimmer didn’t really know how to deal with Adora like this. She usually didn’t. The only person who did was Catra. When they were in the Horde, Adora was constantly trying to do better, and some nights she would stay awake like this, worried that she wasn’t doing well enough. Catra knew how to calm her down with a little banter and mostly cool touches and focused breathing, and Glimmer was more of a placating kind of person. She was Adora’s friend, of course, but it wasn’t the same. 

“I have- I have to do something- Make sure this place is never forgotten- Anything-” 

“Adora if you tell the Etherians about this place the Horde is going to use it as propaganda against you. They’re going to say you aren’t a savior,” Bow said nicely, gesturing with his hands a little. 

“Maybe I’m not!” Adora replied, frantic. “Maybe all I am is a murderer- All I do is fight-” 

“Adora, come on, you can’t really believe that after saving my people-” Glimmer started, chastising, and in that moment she looked very much like her mother Queen Angella. 

“What if I-” 

But she was cut off from Bow’s shout, because in that moment something blasted his arm from behind and he fell forward. Glimmer screamed and grabbed them both, teleporting them into another room with less window. They were in a small bedroom without a window and a tiny dresser as if for a child.

“Who was it- did you see them?!” Adora said, leaning over Bow and looking at Glimmer. The other girl shook her head. Bow groaned and tried to move his arm, but then groaned even louder. 

“I can’t- I can’t use it-” 

Adora let go of her hysterics and raised her sword. “For the Honor of Grayskull!” 

“Stay here, Glimmer.” 

She changed into She-Ra in a flash and walked back into the hallway, walking towards the library to get a good look at them. She peeked into the library and looked over to the window and saw outside. Unfortunately, outside was covered with the Horde’s soldiers, tanks, and weapons. She-Ra felt her heart sink. They were going to destroy the city. They were going to destroy the library with the last accounts before they can be paralized in Bow’s dad’s library. 

The thing she was most afraid for, though, was Swift Wind. She didn’t hear anything from him, which meant they must have knocked him out before he could send She-Ra a signal, or perhaps it was too far low in the ground for Swift Wind to be able to communicate. 

Whatever the case, She-Ra realized through her examination of the display making its way slowly up the path from the town square, that she couldn’t see Catra, and that was even more scary. 

She-Ra ran back to the other two, lowering her sword. “They aren’t really here yet, just using blasters on the outside. I saw Scorpia on one of the tanks but I couldn’t see Catra. Glimmer you’ve been teleporting a lot today, but can you teleport Bow out of here with you?” 

“We aren’t leaving you,” Bow said roughly. He was sitting up on the edge of the bed and Glimmer was next to him, ripping off parts of her cape to tie it around his wound. 

“I agree with Bow, but even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to cross a city this big in one teleport alone. It’d take 8 at least.” 

“You need to get out of here. We all do. The only reason they’re here is for two things- either First Ones tech or Us. Particularly the chic with the giant sword who’s thwarting them at every pass.” She-Ra said gruffly. 

“When I was in the kitchen I saw an escapeway. I think there's a small tunnel the Venerans must have escaped through that led towards the entrance to the city. We can escape through there but we’re going to need to get down there. They got my shooting arm so I’m essentially useless, but you and Glimmer can get us down there no sweat.” Bow stood up and made a grimace as he moved his arm the wrong way. 

Quickly, the three of them made their way downstairs to the kitchen and found the open tunnel next to one of the ovens. Bow went in first, quickly followed by Glimmer, both of which were crouching. She-Ra tried to fit in but realized in her larger state it would be fruitless. 

“I have to change back, hold on-” 

Before she could do anything she was getting pulled back by the hair and getting knocked on her back. 

“Adora!” Glimmer screamed, but She-Ra kicked the door to the tunnel closed, making sure her friends got out of there safe. 

Catra laughed behind She-Ra, looking down at her with mirth. 

“I always love our little meetings, Adora.” 

In that moment she wasn’t She-Ra. She was fully Adora. She might have been much taller by about a foot, had long platinum blonde hair and white clothes and cool shiny metal boots, but she was Adora, practicing at the Horde base with Catra and preparing everyday to fight the dastardly princesses. 

Adora sat up and turned around quickly, forcing her sword in front of her. 

“I didn’t realize this one was scheduled,” Adora quipped with their easy banter. “I hadn’t seen you in a while. I thought you’d been benched.” 

“Why would Hordak bench his best player?” Catra laughed, walking forward and slashing towards Adora, who blocked it with her sword, barely missing it. “All of his missions would fail if it weren’t for me.” 

Catra didn’t seem to be much in the fighting spirit today, though. Adora noticed that the other girl wasn’t as sharp or as harsh as usual. She definitely didn’t have her head in the game. Adora had seen this a few times before in training, on longer days when the Horde was pushing more and more for their goal. Adora did the same as she did back then. She pointed out the other girl’s weak spots. 

Adora kicked Catra’s feet from under her, sending her falling to the ground for a second before landing on her feet again instead. Catra hissed at her and lurched forward, urging Adora to fall back into the dining room. 

“Why did you come here, Catra? What was the point?” 

“Mainly to spy on you. We’ve been tracking you specifically of course. This was, in all honesty, too good to be true. You three idiots put yourselves deep into the ground, all alone? It’s the perfect oppurtunity to put the leaders of this stupid little rebellion to rest.” 

“The rebellion has been much more than ‘little’ and we both know it,” Adora said, walking backward a little and then kicking a broken chair at Catra. Catra avoided the chair by smacking it away to the side and wiping the wood shavings from her face. The car girl looked at Adora with thinly veiled anger. 

“Well I’m going to be the one to end it,” Catra said, running at Adora and knocking the other girl down. Adora rolled into the foyer, her sword turning into a shield that met with Catra’s sharp claws going towards her throat. Adora kicked Catra off and stood up, shifting her sword back and preparing for Catra’s next move. 

“Why do you want it to end so badly? Do you really hate princesses that much? Do you really hate  _ me _ that much?” 

And this, somehow, pulled a trigger in Catra. She was no longer just running through the motions of their fight, or saying casual words back and forth to egg on the other. This sent her into a spiral of some sort. 

“I don’t hate you,” she whispered angrily.

“What?” Adora said, genuinely not hearing her right. Adora stepped back towards the throne room, where she might be able to hit Catra with the throne. She-Ra was strong enough for that, right? 

“I don’t hate you,” Catra repeated. “It’s them I hate. It’s the fact that you left.” 

“I still don’t get it, even if you hated us this much you were never that interested in the Horde-” 

“Don’t you get it?!” Catra screamed, her eyes filling with vicious tears, “I was in love with you! I worshipped the floor you walked on!” 

Adora looked at her, shocked, and felt her heart stutter. She lowered her sword to the floor, her back arching.

“But you never once cared! You never paid attention! Our whole lives your eyes were shut, while all mine ever did was gaze at  _ you _ !” 

And with that Catra swung out her right hand, and swiped Adora in the chest. Adora exclaimed as the sharp blades pierced her skin through her clothes and left three bright red, long marks, right over where her heart rested. 

She grabbed her chest and sobbed, falling to her knees in the throne room. 

“Catra, please! I loved you too,” she could feel the warm blood leave her and drip down her stomach. “But I was blind.They pushed me to be the best- to work for them as hard as I could-”

“And what did that get you?” Catra said, towering over her. Adora saw tears falling from Catra like a downpour. “What did years of excelling really succeed? You just hopped sides. You’re in the same place but with different people! You left me for nothing!” 

Catra kneed the blonde in the face, knocking her onto the ground on her right side. Adora choked out another sob and weakly tried to crawl away. 

“Was I not enough?” Catra said weakly. She was the one standing- the one attacking, but for a moment Catra looked small, like she had when Adora walked through the visions with her in an ancient temple. She looked meek. “Was staying with me- loving me- was it not enough? What more do you want?” 

“I wanted..” Adora said quietly, stopping the inching away from the other girl. She looked over at the wall filled with First Ones writing of a history long gone for a second and then back up at Catra. In that moment she felt just as small. “I wanted the truth. I wanted to make them all pleased- I wanted to do my best because I knew what happened if I didn’t.”

“You only saw that because they did it to  _ me _ !” Catra screamed out, grabbing her hair in her clawed fingers. “They tortured me, killed a part of me every day, and being the favorite was never enough?!” 

“ _ I wanted patience. I wanted kindness and love, and friends!”  _ Adora screamed back. “From the moment I met them all they’ve been to me is kind- a kindness I never knew with the Horde-” 

“We weren’t  _ raised _ to be kind!” Catra said, falling to her knees, looking at Adora levelly. “We weren’t raised to know those things- and suddenly now that you have them, now everything is different? You ditched me, you left me, you abandoned me because I was never kind?” 

“I,” Adora choked out. “ _ Never _ abused you. You make it seem like I was the one hurting you; You’re still  _ with _ them! You’re  _ working _ for Hordak!  _ You can come with me.”  _

Catra looked at Adora weakly, bitterly. 

“You can come with me, and know love and kindness too.” 

“They’ll never be  _ kind _ to me,” Catra spat. “After all of the things I’ve done? They’ll never accept me. Look at Scorpia: they only ever treated her lesser. I don’t want to jump sides and remain stagnant, Adora. I want to be level.”

Adora opened her mouth to say something, to protest or argue, but Catra cut her off. “I’m going to kill Hordak tonight. I’m going to be rid of the whole hierarchy of disgusting assholes.”

Adora knew those words should have brought her comfort, since the war and everything else leading up was meant for this moment. She knew that in the end it was going to be just that: Hordak’s death, but it was a bittersweet sound to hear it coming from Catra. The princesses were supposed to kill the villain leader, weren’t they? That was going to end it all. But if Catra did it, if  _ Catra _ finished him off, and took his place- 

“What if you did both?” Adora said, blinking. “What if you killed Hordak, became the leader of the Horde, but you joined us as well?”

“What are you talking about?” Catra said, standing up. “You’re delirious- I kneed you too hard in the head this time.” 

“What if you became head of the military? What if you joined us: your own section of Eternia, and were head of all of it? What if you defended us from others who might do harm? You’d be rid of them. It would stop the fighting- the death, the war, all of it- what if you joined us  _ and _ you won?” 

Catra gave a bitter laugh, one that rang throughout the hall. “I’ve given up on trying to work with you, oh sweet Adora. You think I want to be their puppet? You think I want to be  _ your’s _ ? I want to show them that what they did- to  _ me _ \- will not happen again, and it will not go unpunished.” 

For a second Catra’s words sounded reasonable. She had to put a stop to the madness- and what happened if the other princesses  _ did _ do what Catra said? What if they shunned her, or used her? They would be no better than then Horde. There was no winning, this time. There was no A+ after practice and no praises this time when someone succeeded. There would only be tragedy. 

Adora felt like she was getting as mad as Moira had been in this place, probably thousands of years before her.

“Catra, please,” Adora murmured quietly, begging. Her eyes had started leaking again as she looked up at the catwoman. “You don’t have to do this-” 

She didn’t know, really, what she was pleading for Catra not to do. Not to kill Hordak? But that would only benefit the princesses and Eternia. Not to take his place? Sure, Catra would be a cruel ruler- an apathetic overlord who reigned over a slaved people without a care in the world- but would she? Adora saw time and again how dedicated to her team she was, how smart she was in caring for them. Maybe Adora was pleading for Catra not to kill her, because in that moment, her yellow eyes looking fiercely down at her, Adora would have thought she’d be able to kill God themself.

Catra seemed to understand what Adora had meant, and frowned solemnly. “I do.” 

And with that, Adora fell unconscious, and she wasn’t sure if it was because of the sharp knock to her head on the floor, blood-loss, or the way Catra had finally, after all those years, looked at her hatefully. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading and dont forget to kudos and comment and check out my other works if you loved this one!!! Check me out on tumblr @ cr-yellow! I don't plan on making this more than what it is but I mean if you like it enough I have the room for it, you know? Anyway TOODLES I LOVE YALL ~Cryellow <3


End file.
